Vance exuded calm during a tense debate moment. Can he hold out in the fight against Walz?

COLUMBUS, Ohio – When two of his Republican rivals for an Ohio Senate seat almost came to blows on live national television two years ago, JD Vance seemed unfazed.

“Sit down. Come on,” said Vance, the youngest and least politically experienced of the remaining candidates sitting in a row on the stage. “This is ridiculous.”

To many observers, his calm, self-controlled response gave Vance the authority of an adult over his opponents. When Ohio Right to Life endorsed him a few weeks later, the group cited his “statesmanship” as a reason.

Vance’s debating skills also caught the attention of Donald Trump, who supported him in his winning 2022 Senate run and chose him as his running mate in this year’s presidential election. His early encounters provide a glimpse of how the Yale-educated senator might approach Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate, when he meets Kamala Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. It is the only expected meeting between the two during the election campaign.

Vance is known for being informed, articulate and unflappable. Even his 2022 Democratic opponent, Tim Ryan, said: “He’s a smart guy.” He will bring a style honed through verbal clashes with a gauntlet of television journalists, but not one that looks like Trump’s.

Republican political consultant Terry Casey, who has regularly helped prepare the GOP debate in Ohio, said Vance and Trump are “night and day” when it comes to debating.

“He’s a lawyer who likes to engage intellectually with issues in a different way than Trump,” Casey said. “Trump missed both opportunities and the bait when he debated Kamala Harris. I suspect that with Vance he will not fall into those traps or neglect those opportunities.”

Vance said in a call with reporters this week that he felt no pressure to do “anything similar” to the extensive debate preparation Walz is conducting.

“I don’t think we need to prepare that much,” because “we don’t need to hide our record from the American people,” Vance said.

Still, Vance has spent the last month reviewing debate schedules, strategies and possible questions, according to a person familiar with his preparations who requested anonymity to discuss strategy. In addition to the online sessions, most of that work took place at his home in Cincinnati — where his wife, Usha, and Trump campaign strategist Jason Miller joined members of his inner circle to prepare Vance.

U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, the House majority leader, has helped discuss Vance in the Minnesota governor’s “folky” Midwestern style as the team mulls over Walz’s previous debate appearances, the source said. For Vance — an Ohio native with Appalachian roots who many know from the book and movie “Hillbilly Elegy” — it may not be as far-fetched as it would be for another candidate.

Vance comes into the event with solid debate performances from 2022.

Such an appearance in Cleveland increased his profile in the Trump world – and helped Vance gain the former president’s coveted endorsement.

Vance’s Democratic rival in the fall, former 10-term congressman Ryan, said the senator’s vulnerability on Tuesday could be trying to deliver a performance that would please Trump.

“He definitely has an audience of one, so that can be his Achilles heel,” Ryan said. “Because Trump wants him to be aggressive, he wants him to try to portray Walz as extremely extreme and out of touch, which I think – given Walz’s appearance, his demeanor, his sense of humor and everything – will be very difficult.” .” .”

Ryan said he has tried to highlight his past controversial statements in his debates with Vance, and that could cause Vance to “go a little off track.”

“Walz should be very aggressive and make JD really eat his own words,” he said.

Casey said the age difference between the two men – Walz is 60, Vance is 40 – is clear on stage, although with it comes a contrast in debate experience. Walz has honed his technique over 12 years in Congress and two runs for governor, while Vance has only run in a single political campaign – albeit a hotly contested one.

If history is any indicator, viewers can expect to see Vance criticize Tuesday’s moderators, CBS’s Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan, during the debate. Since becoming Trump’s vice presidential running mate, Vance has become the Trump campaign’s most prominent attack dog and a fixture on weekend news shows – where he often pushes back anchors and calls them by name.

In a remarkable exchange with CNN’s Dana Bash on September 15, Vance signaled his determination to stick to the false story that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were stealing and eating people’s pets. These claims were refuted by both local officials and Ohio’s Republican governor, but amplified by Trump in his September 10 debate with Harris. More than 30 bomb threats following those statements forced the city to evacuate schools and government buildings, and some members of the Haitian community who are in the U.S. legally said they felt unsafe.

Vance insisted to Bash that his statements about immigrants eating pets were based on things voters had told him. He blamed Springfield’s problems with overcrowded schools, hospitals and other services on “Kamala Harris’ open border.”

Challenged by Bash about the facts behind his claims, Vance did not back down. Instead, he directly questioned Bash’s objectivity.

“Dana, would you like to ask me questions and let me answer them, or would you like to discuss these topics with me?” he asked.

Vance’s vigorous opposition appears to please the Trump base. In an interview this summer, Charlie Kirk, founder of the conservative activist group Turning Point USA, said such situations were Vance’s strength.

“I generally say that JD Vance’s superpower is his ability to go into controversial media environments, stay calm, cool and collected, and say things that are very compelling without raising his voice,” Kirk said.

Vance also viewed these media sessions as excellent debate practice, said the person familiar with his preparations.

Under normal circumstances, it’s hard to find evidence that debates matter much, said Kevin Parsneau, a political science professor at Minnesota State University in Mankato. He said even the 1988 vice presidential debate — in which Democratic Sen. Lloyd Bentsen scathingly told Republican Sen. Dan Quayle, “Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy” — didn’t change the outcome. Vice President George HW Bush still easily won the presidency.

“But obviously the Biden-Trump debate was of great importance, and there may be signs that the Trump-Harris debate was of little importance,” Parsneau said. “Vice presidential debates don’t usually matter.”

But assuming this is the final debate of the 2024 election campaign, “the margins are so razor-thin that you don’t have to influence much,” he said.

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Staff writer Steve Karnowski contributed from Minneapolis.